Wednesday, February 10, 2016

More Comments from Readers – Part VI

Here are more comments that we have received from readers of
this website blog:Comment #1: “I have studied much about the different
ideas of where the Book of Mormon took place and keep coming up with new ideas
and names. Knowing that there are in the neighborhood of 25 ideas about the
location. Will you give me a short answer as to the geography of Book of Mormon
lands as it relates to Lehi and his group as you see it. Then I will take the
dive and purchase your book” Petri1gc. Response: Hmmm, 35 years
research in one paragraph. Well, Nephi’s ship was driven forth before the
winds, the ocean currents and winds blew south off the Arabian Peninsula,
taking Nephi’s ship to the south and then southeast in the counter-clockwise
South Indian Ocean Gyre, then into the Southern Ocean heading due east until
hitting the Humboldt Current moving up the west coast of South America to the
Tropic of Capricorn around the 30º South Latitude where the winds and currents
die down and allow a simple landing for a ship “driven forth before the wind,”
allowing a landing in the Bay of Coquimbo at La Serena, Chile.

Nephi’s ship was caught in the Monsoon winds
and currents that flow southward off the Arabian Peninsula, turn into the
Indian Ocean Gyre, swinging to the southeast, and slip into the West Wind Drive
and Prevailing Westerlies of the Southern Ocean; then hitting the South
American shelf, turn northward in the Humboldt (Peruvian) Current to where they
die down to almost nothing at 30º South Latitude where a landing could be made
in Coquimbo Bay at La Serena, ChileThis is where the
Mediterranean Climate provided the abundant growth of the seeds “they brought
from Jerusalem,” also a Mediterranean Climate area. After Lehi’s death (1-3
years later), Nephi flees northward, eventually reaching the area of present
day Cuzco, building his city, Temple, and fortress to defend himself against
his brothers and the sons of Ishmael (Lamanites) at the area known today as
Sacsayhuaman, where the ancient foundation of a tall tower (built by king Noah
next to the temple) can still be seen (it was still standing at the time of the
Spanish conquest). The rest of the Book of Mormon takes place mostly between
Cuzco and Lima (Pachacamac—Zarahemla), and north to Cajamarca (Bountiful), with
the Gulf of Guayaquil the area of the narrow neck of land. This is all spelled
out in great detail in the first book Lehi
Never Saw Mesoamerica. The Jaredites and their barges and landing are
covered, along with those who went north in Hagoth’s ships and where they
landed, etc., are covered in the second
book, Who Really Settled
Mesoamerica; the third book, Inaccuracies
of Mesoamerican &Other Theorists, deals entirely with all the other
Land of Promise theories and comparing each to the scriptural record, using the
theorists own statements and comparisons. The fourth book, Scientific Fallacies &Other Myths, shows why the Earth is not
4.55 billion years old, and covers numerous scientific “facts” that are
incorrect and why, based on scientific principles and scientists’ research and
statements (you never hear about), to show that the Book of Mormon is correct,
both scientifically and historically.Comment #2: “Your idea of South America being underwater
is too far-fetched for me. This makes your entire theory wrong as far as I’m
concerned” Hamilton R.Response: Either you
haven’t been reading all that has been printed on this subject, or you simply
know nothing about geology. Take for instance, above all we’ve written, the so
obvious sequence of erosional marine terraces along the western South American
coast.

Typical
sequence of erosional marine terraces: 1) low tide cliff/ramp with deposition,
2) modern shore (wave-cut/abrasion) platform, 3) notch/inner edge, modern
shoreline angle, 4) modern sea cliff, 5) old shore (wave-cut/abrasion)
platform, 6) paleo-shoreline angle, 7) paleo-sea cliff, 8) terrace cover
deposits/marine deposits, colluvium, 9) alluvial fan, 10) decayed and covered
sea cliff and shore platform, 11) paleo-sea level I, 12) paleo-sea level IIIt is a well known fact that
tectonic forces played a central role in the uplift of marine terraces along
the Ecuadorian and Colombian Pacific coasts. Sandy terraces in southern Ecuador
have been eroded by numerous small seasonal streams, leaving small areas of
alluvial soils (Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Vol 5, Middle America, ed Peter N.
Peregrine and Melvin Ember, Yale University, 2001, p269). When the continent
tilted in the west from the subduction of the tectonic plates, it created Pacific coastal marine terracing, i.e., raised beach or
perched coastline of relatively flat, horizontal or gently inclined surface of
marine origin, mostly an old abrasion platform which has been lifted out of the
sphere of wave activity (sometimes called "tread"), creating on the
Atlantic side a wetland vegetation supplemental area of submerged and emergent vegetation along the low-energy coastline of the Amazon Basin.

Left: The terraced Pacific coast of Ecuador; Right: The submerged
wetland Atlantic coast of Brazil Comment #3: "You wrote about Nephi's ship having to reach the sea from the inlet where he built it through the currents, etc., and how difficult it could be and why it was important to have the two mountain cliffs on each side. I never understood what you meant until I saw a movie this week called "The Finest Hours" that showed a small powerboat trying to get out past a sand bar in a storm. That was so graphic that I now realize what you keep writing about that ships can't go just anywhere" Diana T.

Top: When leaving the inland channel and crossing the Chatham Sand Bar, the motor launch is driven up in an attempt to pass over the bar at full throttle--shown here cresting the wave and trying to pass up the wall to the lip and over the peak; Bottom: But the waves are so strong that they drive the launch backward and sideways (broaching the wave) and nearly capsizingthe vessel Response: Generally speaking, you get the idea. The Chatham sand bar in Massachusetts is an extremely long sand bar and the Chatham Lighthouse is necessary to warn of the hazard to incoming shipping; the Coast Guard Motor Life BoatStation is necessary because the sand bar changes and moves aboutfrom the impact of strong ocean waves, especially when a stiff east wind (heading inland) is blowing. When moving out to sea from Chatham Harbor and Pleasant Bay (just south of Aunt Lydias's Cover) it can be a difficult maneuver, especially when a storm is blowing. In fact, there is always a duty Surfman standing in the front door with binoculars in hand watching the bar and studying the wave patterns, just in case. Before the lighthouse was built, and for sometime afterward, the Surfman would walk the beaches of Cape Cod slinging a lantern and trying to keep his Coston signals dry beneath his oil skins in case he spotted a stricken vessel. A Surfman from the other direction would also walk his beaches, typically a three mile distance in between Life Stations, where they would meet and exchange notes on the waves and Surfman checks, before retracing their earlier route; However, the Cape Cod situation is far worse than what we were referring to in our article, yet there can be similar dangers trying to crest the waves coming shoreward over sand bars and troughs as the article suggested, especially in a sailing vessel without power. By the way, the halfway houses (Life Stations of the Life Savings Service)are gone now, replaced by radios, telephone lines and mechanized vehicles.

One of the old Life Stations, called Halfway Houses and named when in use "The North Patrol House," and though originally sat on the beach below the footof Holway Street, it was moved closer toward Chatham Light at the foot of Water Street, and still stands today, located on Forest Beach road. The Chatham Lighthouse is shown in the movie 'The Finest Hours' you mentioned (an excellent and extremely intense story based on a true incident that took place in 1952—and for all those readers who have such a readiness to accept Lehi sailing and landing just about anywhere they choose, the movie shows weather patterns, currents and winds and how difficult they are to go against even in a 37-foot power launch)Comment #4: “You seem
to think that the term used in the promise to Lehi “a land of promise, a land which
is choice above all other lands” (2 Nephi 1:5)” has to do with a land far
larger than the United States, which can only be so described” David S.Response: One of the problems we make is thinking the Lord
thinks in the same scope as we do, and that the early history of people covers
the same land masses and concepts we have today. Both thoughts and approaches
are in error. From the time of Noah down to Lehi, a period of about 1700 years,
the world only knew of the land masses of Europe, Asia and Africa. That was the
world. Those were the countries of the world, the people of the world, the
governments of the world—nothing else and nowhere else existed. At that moment in time, the Lord opened the eyes of people
through Lehi of an entirely new world existing halfway across the oceans which
he had preserved “after the waters had receded from off the face of this land,
it became a choice land above all other lands” (Ether 13:2). That land, what we
call “the Americas” today, or the Western Hemisphere, was unknown to anyone
(other than the Jaredites in complete secrecy) and held no place in the
knowledge of all men at the time. By 1820, its origin and first settlers were still basically
unknown to man, leading Moroni to tell Joseph Smith of a record, “giving
an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from
whence they sprang” (JS 1:34). That is, ”this continent,” as opposed to the
“old continent,” or old world, or Asia (Middle East), etc.